tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86305360231876091192024-03-12T21:59:30.509-07:00IGC WordsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-65450705047878121292014-12-20T08:46:00.001-08:002014-12-20T08:46:50.251-08:00TestUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-62510288987457741892013-02-06T19:59:00.003-08:002013-02-06T19:59:59.915-08:00Esquire's "The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama"<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/obama-lethal-presidency-0812-3?page=all" target="_blank">Read More...</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-21197559420732759802011-02-27T07:03:00.000-08:002011-02-27T08:10:26.446-08:00Chiarella and Whitman<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQfVSMsC7IDRdee7wY-WTjvDwARyi1djmazXUT2TN2QKNZOsUe5POViSzKCvVIN7F0275iQKgjkCKoPiMRnv6CzmmDGq8N2OIf69CwBXsg6ilLRhWn3O2C0fMefLHY7HJCxavZaK3eoxg/s1600/RGS182.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQfVSMsC7IDRdee7wY-WTjvDwARyi1djmazXUT2TN2QKNZOsUe5POViSzKCvVIN7F0275iQKgjkCKoPiMRnv6CzmmDGq8N2OIf69CwBXsg6ilLRhWn3O2C0fMefLHY7HJCxavZaK3eoxg/s400/RGS182.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578398078520816642" /></a><br /><div>I recently came across Tom Chiarella's "<a href="http://www.esquire.com/dont-miss/useful-part/expectations0607">Wake-Up Call for New Dads.</a>" I usually love Chiarella's writing from beginning to end. But in this entry, he rails on new dads for their inexperience. And for their fancy strollers. "Bunch of arrogant know-it-alls, smug in what they clearly perceive to be the singular glow of the creation of their loins." I'm not sure these guys deserve this. In fact, I'm not sure these guys really exist, except as the straw men needed to launch into this kind of thing--an offering of wisdom to the rookie. A letter to himself as a new dad, really.</div><div><br /></div><div>When he gets to the heart of his message, though, which is that a new dad will be challenged to appreciate the experience as much as he could or should, it's really powerful and confessional: "I should have opened my eyes wider every day to snap myself out of the torpor of pride and pleasure; I should have used every day to think about what I didn't know about being a father. And I should have sat there awhile in stillness, flush in the lessons provided by the company of my sons, then -- as now -- the most quarrelsome and deep pleasure I'll ever know." </div><div><br /></div><div>I was reading Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" to find my favorite defense of contradiction: "Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" Then I came to this part in the same poem:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span">You are also asking me questions and I hear you, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Sit a while dear son, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I kiss </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">you with a good-by kiss and open the gate for your egress </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">hence.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Now I wash the gum from your eyes, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">moment of your life.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">and laughingly dash with your hair.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">I am the teacher of athletes, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">of my own, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.</span></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-20020111704412239372009-05-25T11:44:00.000-07:002009-06-04T09:51:04.020-07:00Memorial Day, 2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm6rG7l6LT7ZL5LFMrd9f8L5batSZ3CwOCQA5oeO99l6Ix4-kgcKcp4TYV6fbvB24__eoIN8Bk30TU3J5V6XVEXJ5kugm_Y9mZ5r9YJipvbDt50ZEyQkf-AMUgTTt6yM0UlYrZ1STEgNM/s1600-h/soldier.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 244px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm6rG7l6LT7ZL5LFMrd9f8L5batSZ3CwOCQA5oeO99l6Ix4-kgcKcp4TYV6fbvB24__eoIN8Bk30TU3J5V6XVEXJ5kugm_Y9mZ5r9YJipvbDt50ZEyQkf-AMUgTTt6yM0UlYrZ1STEgNM/s320/soldier.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339840726118788210" /></a><br /><div>THE YOUNG DEAD SOLDIERS DO NOT SPEAK<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?</div><div>They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts.</div><div>They say, We were young. We have died. Remember us.</div><div>They say, We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done.</div><div>They say, We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.</div><div>They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what you make them.</div><div>They say, Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say: it is you who must say this.</div><div>They say, We leave you our deaths: give them their meaning: give them an end to the war and a true peace: give them a victory that ends the war and a peace afterwards: give them their meaning.</div><div>We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.</div><div><br /></div><div>-Archibald MacLeish</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-48814281357080151852009-05-16T11:28:00.001-07:002013-02-06T20:14:35.558-08:00Esquire's "Letter to the Young Drinker"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjRPz823KhJptBFYKcaGjLtRzeI-z8j74Vx5eXljsv45bJJyhj61e1n6ezFImmfTP7-H6YS-MsltAWKED-gcN6h1wm8iqv4TF_tF6xkJ0sopvJOhAtLa8ONkk7WUkmtxJ5OMwFFBn_sk/s1600-h/drink.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336500375920826978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjRPz823KhJptBFYKcaGjLtRzeI-z8j74Vx5eXljsv45bJJyhj61e1n6ezFImmfTP7-H6YS-MsltAWKED-gcN6h1wm8iqv4TF_tF6xkJ0sopvJOhAtLa8ONkk7WUkmtxJ5OMwFFBn_sk/s400/drink.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 326px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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In June's issue of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.esquire.com/">Esquire</a></span>, there is an exquisite letter from someone who I would like to imagine is somewhat like myself in 20 years writing to someone a lot like myself 10 years ago. (The real author is Tom Chiarella, the same guy who wrote the amazing "<a href="http://sundustwords.blogspot.com/2008/05/lists-esquires-75-skills.html">75 Skills Every Man Should Master</a>", aka the reason I subscribed to Esquire in the first place.) Some highlights from the letter:</div>
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"When you look back on your world with some booze in you--at your family, at your home, at your troubles--you'll find yourself a little unhinged from expectation, from fear." "For awhile, for a long while maybe, you surprise yourself. You're braver. Sharper." "Understand, from the get-go, these are fun illusions." "Make rules: I don't drink beer from boots. Don't chug. Don't shotgun. Don't hoot. Like that. Draft your own lessons. Learn from your mistakes. Quickly. You get a couple when you start. After that, it's on you."</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;">In its entirety: <a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/drinking/drinking-at-young-age-0609">A Letter to the Young Drinker</a></span></div>
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The issue is worth buying just for the 13-page section on drinking in which this letter appears. There are also some drink recipes and other fine written pieces. For instance, the one in which this sentence appears: "My choice [of drink] is a reflection of what's important to me, so, I'll have what she's having."</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">BTW, I think Esquire should think about making an iPhone app that has drink recipes and extras (like these articles) for subscribers.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-41100123014564434292009-05-13T17:23:00.000-07:002009-05-17T08:51:53.263-07:00Danielle: Good Versus Evil<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4RpxwAPD0jNULl8GyZWW-nZNjQEUcXocG5AFFAwmultWxu0RjFwB6iOb-mid_XvaW6sepoD4au70L2CWBgylrnm1gGw46JZ5HP0bl2Twj1LTufQjklQVf6e6blLA5qBPIkpQkIvkG3s/s1600-h/n645195444_4227434_2333.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 359px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4RpxwAPD0jNULl8GyZWW-nZNjQEUcXocG5AFFAwmultWxu0RjFwB6iOb-mid_XvaW6sepoD4au70L2CWBgylrnm1gGw46JZ5HP0bl2Twj1LTufQjklQVf6e6blLA5qBPIkpQkIvkG3s/s400/n645195444_4227434_2333.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336456421238915506" /></a><div>I've never met Danielle in person. And I can't remember how I found <a href="http://alwswrite.blogspot.com/">her blog</a>. But I sure am glad I did. She's thoughtful and hilarious. She's insightful to the point that she seems to question just who she is with the mastery of someone who knows <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">exactly</span> who she is. Take this autobiographical piece that appeared in the Washington Post, for example: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021001590.html">LIFE IS SHORT</a>. And I love this post of hers: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 51); font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 19px; font-family:'Lucida Grande';font-size:17px;"><a href="http://alwswrite.blogspot.com/search?q=bus+legs">are your legs tired...?</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? What do you want to be now?</span></div><div> </div><div>As a child? I wanted to be Michael J. Fox's girlfriend. When I was a teenager - which in hindsight looks like a kid - I wanted to be a voice-over artist for Disney. </div><div><br /></div><div>Seriously. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I want to be a successful novelist. And healthy.</div><div> <br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">When was the last time you were violent?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Three days ago, in a dream. It was pretty brutal.</div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Were you in the right?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>That would be up to the dream jury. I think they would sympathize. </div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Describe an instance when you placed a good deal of trust in a complete stranger.</span></div><div> </div><div><div>Several years ago I got involved with a man - <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">fell in love</span> with a man whom I would have trusted with my life. Unfortunately he had lied to me about everything from his name to what he ate for breakfast each morning. He emotionally abused me. He <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">faked cancer</span> - for <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">six months</span>. When I became so lost in that chasm that I started praying to just die in my sleep, I ran to Israel (sort of my second home) to look for my sanity. He followed me there and harmed me further. In all, it amounted to psychological rape. It took nine months for me to realize he was a complete stranger; a mirage, and mentally ill. But until then, I trusted him implicitly.</div></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Do you own a vanity book - a book you haven't read but keep on the shelf in the hopes that people will think you've read it? What are the qualities you associate with this book?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Does my collection of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Atlantic Monthly </span>count? I confess haven't read them all. Maybe half. Maybe. Smarties read <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Atlantic</span>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, ask me about the books I'm ashamed of and an entire library emerges from under my bed. Titles include but are not limited to: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man</span> (by Steve Harvey - my mother gave it to me and I never read it); <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Rules</span> (ditto); <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World</span> (galley copy sent by St. Martin's Press when I interviewed the author); <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Sex and the City</span>; and a couple Nora Roberts paperbacks. All of these would give one the impression that I am a chick, which I am not. I am a W-O-M-A-N.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Describe the last time you lost something of value.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I'd have to say it was my faith in people's honesty and basic goodness. (See "psychological rape," above.) Like so many things of value, I didn't realize how precious it was until it was gone. I was raised by good people. That's what made me such an easy target - it was unfathomable that one human being could do something so horrible to another. And so... I never fathomed it. And that's how he got me. And when he was finished with me, my innocence was gone. I can honestly say now that while I'm occasionally surprised, nothing shocks me anymore. Which is sorta sad.</div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Is/was there a place you repeatedly look/looked for this item?</span></div><div> </div><div>In the eyes of every new man I meet (now that I've started dating again).</div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Annular rings indicate the age of a tree; they form as a result of their environment. Give your age. Describe an event that aged you and when it occurred.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I am 33 (which always comes as a surprise to me). The abuse definitely aged me. I could see it in my face when all was said and done. Stress does ugly things to the body. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What piece of advice/wisdom that you were given at one point do you hold on to?</span></div><div> </div><div>"Try not to be too hard on people; you never know what they're going through." Linda Richman said this to me during a magazine interview. She's my hero - read her book.</div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What makes the world go 'round?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Good chasing evil, and evil chasing good. 'Round and 'round they go. Who started the chase? Nobody can know.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-35824830992273080952009-05-01T05:47:00.000-07:002009-05-16T09:18:26.944-07:00My Buddy Tino and His Phone<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGB6pF9qola9u-3qXS17RujjNXqD0pTkEDP_Yc3hzm77gwxSgAT9L1Uy9TfKx_fLVn6Ny_5NrSsVb4mzZKiNtE8knlMav2VWWR7PNfMW0uHpDFl4US-DtR3hZXQePUByT_Pi0QXsfsqQ/s1600-h/Tino+copy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGB6pF9qola9u-3qXS17RujjNXqD0pTkEDP_Yc3hzm77gwxSgAT9L1Uy9TfKx_fLVn6Ny_5NrSsVb4mzZKiNtE8knlMav2VWWR7PNfMW0uHpDFl4US-DtR3hZXQePUByT_Pi0QXsfsqQ/s400/Tino+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336449439152867858" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial;font-size:13px;"><div>My buddy Tino never answers his phone. At least not when I call. Our friends will be getting together for drinks or arranging a cookout last-minute, and I'll call him. But he never picks up. So I give him hell about it: "You know, Tino, people have mobile phones in order to be reachable more often?"<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Recently, Tino bought an iPhone, and when I got his voicemail again, I left the following message: "Tino, you've gone and purchased the world's most advanced phone, just to continue ignoring it. Nice." The next day, I got the email below, which almost sounded genuinely defensive to me:</div><div></div><blockquote><div>"Hey Ross - Thanks for the invite on Sunday and sorry for not calling you back but I do have a reason (or excuse depending on your outlook). </div><div><br /></div><div>Roy, Nicole and I had gone to Carbondale on Saturday and picked up a fridge for me and a bunch of other appliances from her dad's rental properties and so on Sunday we spent the afternoon and much of the evening dropping them all off at various family members houses around the city. I'm embarrassed to admit it but I left my phone at Roy and Nicole's because I didn't want it to get broken in some awful refrigerator smashing incident where I would have to sacrifice a limb to save my phone. I'm still in the infancy stage with my phone and I'm positive I'll grow out of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>So long story short, I didn't get your message until late and so I didn't call - my bad but I'm sure you aren't shocked."</div></blockquote><div></div><div>I wrote this back:<br /></div><div><blockquote><div>"Fine, I guess that's an acceptable excuse for not answering my call.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope you don't really feel like you need to explain your reasons for not answering when I call. I always assume there's plenty of reasons why you wouldn't. For instance </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">a</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is busy watching TV.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">b</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is [getting] busy.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">c</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is napping.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">d</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino was once brutally man-checked by Ross and is still a little bitter about it (totally understandable, and I am still sorry, even after you man-checked me back, although not as brutally).</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">e</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is making an iTunes playlist for his next get together. It's based on a Dave Matthews song. It includes several songs by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. It totally rocks.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">f</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is taking a bath (I have my reasons for thinking this).</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">g</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is drunk.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">h</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is trapped under something heavy and can't get to his phone.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">i</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is trapped under something light (I have other reasons for thinking this).</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">j</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is playing with the dog.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">k</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is running.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">l</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is already on the phone, ordering something from IKEA.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">m</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is cleaning out his car (I have reasons to believe this would never happen. Ever.).</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">n</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is planning for the apocalypse and has run to the store for several more 5-gallon jugs of water and three cases of canned tuna.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">o</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino feels apathetic about the incoming call from Ross. It's nothing against Ross. Tino just doesn't care to answer right now.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">p</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is busy researching the process of joining the Fred Savage Fan Club online. Tino is having trouble finding the Fan Club, and he is beginning to suspect that he will have to start one on his own. This will make him the president of the club, and that makes Tino VERY happy. Fuck Ross's call. This shit is important.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">q</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is considering the manliness of bow hunting. Seriously, how primitive and cool is that shit? Guns are for wussies.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">r</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is painting the kitchen. Again.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">s</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is playing a game on his new iPhone, and if he stops now to take the call, he might not break his own record.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">t</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino believes that Fred Savage might be calling soon, and he doesn't want to miss it.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">u</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino feels antisocial to the point of being phobic. (Don't worry, it happens to us all sometimes.)</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">v</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is getting busy. Again.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">w</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino's phone is out of batteries.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">x</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tino is almost out of minutes. Again.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">y</span>)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Why? Because we like you.</div><div> </div><div>~Ross"</div></blockquote></div><div></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-40888769738447097812009-04-13T17:07:00.000-07:002009-05-13T17:21:10.780-07:00Eric Saling: No Apologies<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojIEMIajogzdGOI-kvWQAKxyb4r60j1q-pqaqWywbwlAol-M1OjBFYZ9u47Y5svKplJsY21BiHYn2ze7hg3D125pYbcC6DRVFR0h7cpIqsZ7LgsnRJOFiX3HCVCIdqjxmmLesuwfbsto/s1600-h/IMG_0600.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojIEMIajogzdGOI-kvWQAKxyb4r60j1q-pqaqWywbwlAol-M1OjBFYZ9u47Y5svKplJsY21BiHYn2ze7hg3D125pYbcC6DRVFR0h7cpIqsZ7LgsnRJOFiX3HCVCIdqjxmmLesuwfbsto/s400/IMG_0600.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335466558869225730" /></a><div><br /></div><div>The responses below are from Eric, my friend of more than a decade. We've been to the end of the Earth together (literally), and he was the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2fWD83lG8">Best Man</a> at my wedding (for <a href="http://sundustentertainment.blogspot.com/2006/11/dirt-nap.html">good reason</a>). I've never come across another person like him.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>An Architect Being able to make something from nothing, on your own ideas, and have others appreciate it was all I was looking for. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What do you want to be now?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I love being a firefighter, but all I really want to be is smarter.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">When was the last time you were violent?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know that I've ever been violent to another person directly. The closest I have ever been is when I was 26 and punched a sign after having a fight with my girlfriend and sister at the same time. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Were you in the right?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Looking back, no one was right or wrong. We all had our own opinions on the events that took place. I am terribly upset at how my reaction affected both my girlfriend and my sister, though. Violence is rarely the answer.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Describe an instance when you placed a good deal of trust in a complete stranger.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I was sitting outside a coffee house when two people with foreign accents approached me and asked me for some money to get to their embassy. They said they had been mugged and all of their money and documents had been stolen. Normally I don't give money to anyone and had them sit down and explain what happened. They took their time and were very detailed in the story. I was convinced and wanted to help these people get to a place they felt safe. I told them I would help them as long as they promised to repay me when they got back home. They agreed and I gave them my contact info. Twenty dollars exchanged hands and I felt good about assisting travelers having a bad vacation in my city. I should have listened to my gut, 10 years later I still haven't heard a thing. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Tell about a time when you gave a heartfelt apology.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>This may be one of my bigger downfalls. I can't think of a time that I have truly given a heartfelt apology. If I have done something that I need to apologize for, I am sorry that someone was hurt or offended by my actions, but they are rarely intentional. I did what I did because I felt I was doing the right thing at the time.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Do you own a vanity book - a book you haven't read but keep on the shelf in the hopes that people will think you've read it?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>The closest thing I would have to a "vanity book" would be my huge unabridged dictionary. I can't say that I've read it all, but it is the best book I own and the one most overlooked by others. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What are the qualities you associate with this book?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>An almost infinite amount of knowledge.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Describe the last time you lost something of value.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Outside of relationships, the value of anything is nominal. Things can be replaced, those relationships can't.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Is/was there a place you repeatedly look/looked for this item?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I do my best to never lose what is dear to me. But being who I am, once they are gone, I try to stop looking back.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Annular rings indicate the age of a tree; they form as a result of their environment. Give your age. Describe an event that aged you and when it occurred.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>32 years 4 months 2 weeks. For better or for worse, each event of my life has shaped me in to who I am today, and I wouldn't change a single one. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What piece of advice do you hold on to?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>"If you think your life is so bad, go read the newspaper" -William Saling, my father</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What makes the world go 'round?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>The spirit of adventure, exploration and experimentation for the betterment of mankind.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-24364465662931995792009-03-28T04:48:00.000-07:002009-04-01T05:18:55.396-07:00There's More Than One Way Home<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4uOqFTAExEAwCpIQIQCB2I-YqbjLkcB1HvP6YNZTo9HLjF9Wz9YCswK12v6fRWxIvo1Fn8Vzs88jyzpHcgm5CqdgmmDVL8Pl6rZ8-eBKCEB_k3h4sDywJjg3TxeEDoNIX8L-kw6fsv6Y/s1600-h/baby-goat.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4uOqFTAExEAwCpIQIQCB2I-YqbjLkcB1HvP6YNZTo9HLjF9Wz9YCswK12v6fRWxIvo1Fn8Vzs88jyzpHcgm5CqdgmmDVL8Pl6rZ8-eBKCEB_k3h4sDywJjg3TxeEDoNIX8L-kw6fsv6Y/s400/baby-goat.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319695679425868066" /></a>As a sophomore in high school, I used to hang out at a friend's house nearly every night, eating dinner there most nights, and then I would walk home to my house just a few hours before bedtime. On weekend nights, I would hang out with my friends at the same house, and I would walk home in time for my 12:30am curfew.<div><br /></div><div>On one Friday night, just before school let out for the summer, I was walking home from my friend's house, and I found a small wheel that had fallen off of a wheelbarrow. I thought it might make a good go-cart wheel, so I picked it up and carried it home with me. (This is despite the fact that I did not own a go-cart. I figured, sometimes all you need is a good reason to buy a go-cart, and this may have been mine.) The night was beautiful and clear and hot, and the street lights and porch lights lit up the roads for me. </div><div><br /></div><div>While I walking along Gillaspie, a road that ran alongside two large, empty soccer fields, I heard the strangest noise, like someone on my heels snoring lightly. It was wet and glottal, and it made the hair on my neck stand up. I spun around and saw nothing. I looked for bats or birds in the air above me, but there were none. I started walking again, a little faster.</div><div><br /></div><div>After a moment, I heard the sound of tiny hooves behind me: "clip, clop, clip," and a little bleat. I whipped around again and saw nothing to the side or behind me. I spun the other way and saw a tiny, white baby goat prancing around the side of my feet. He looked up at me inquisitively with his bright blue eyes and bleated again. It was all I could do not to scream loudly. </div><div><br /></div><div>My skin crawled. I looked around, searching for someone else who might also be seeing this, or perhaps something that would indicate I was dreaming. The world appeared normal. No shifts in the light and every familiar house in its place. Strangely, I was holding a small, rusty wheel, but I could explain that. I surmised that this was really happening.</div><div><br /></div><div>I bent down and laid my hand on the goat's head. I looked at his eyes, which were beautiful and blankly staring at me. A hairy little bump under his chin was forming. His tiny pink nose sniffed at me. His hair was a little bit course and bristly. His ears flopped around, listening.</div><div><br /></div><div>I sat there for several minutes, just soaking it in, trying to decide what to do next.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just two blocks away from where I was lived a friend of my mom's, a woman named Joan. I had grown up with her kids, and I thought about her every time I passed her house. I thought she might be home, but there were no lights on. I walked up the front lawn with my tire and the baby goat behind me. I knocked. Nothing. I knocked again. I heard some shuffling inside, and I stood back a ways from the door so she could see me through the window.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Who is it?" I couldn't see her. She was standing behind the door.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>"Hi, Joan. It's me, Ross. I need your help. I have a baby goat out here."</div><div><br /></div><div>"A what? You what?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"A goat. It's following me. Can you call Animal Control?"</div><div><br /></div><div>She opened the door slowly, peaking through. When she saw my face, she opened the door wide, bringing her face close the the screen door to look at me closely. "Ross, what's going on?"</div><div><br /></div><div>I turned sideways and pointed to the goat, who now had his front hooves up on her stoop.</div><div><br /></div><div>"OH MY GOD!" she said. "Ross, I thought you were on drugs! That's a real live goat!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"I'm glad you see it, too. Can you call Animal Control?"</div><div><br /></div><div>She brought me into the house and we put the goat in her garage while we waited. At one point, I asked her if I could call home to explain why I would be late for my curfew. She said yes. When I told my mom what happened, she didn't believe me, so I had to put Joan on the phone with her. She said, "I know! I thought he was on drugs! And then when I saw it, I thought I was on drugs!" She handed me the phone again, and, feeling vindicated, I asked my mom to come pick me up. She said, "Sweety, I know that this has been a strange night, so you are excused for being late. But that doesn't mean I have to get out of bed to come get you." </div><div><br /></div><div>"So no ride?"</div><div><br /></div><div>"See you in the morning."</div><div><br /></div><div>Animal Control came to pick up the little one, and I headed home with my tire.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-74183773489219292552009-03-28T04:39:00.000-07:002009-03-28T04:43:25.287-07:00Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2713/1575/1600/monkeybars.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2713/1575/320/monkeybars.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Boulder Day Nursery, where I started school at the age of three, was the stereotypical Boulder pre-school. At the time (1980, or so), it was run by some of my mom's hippy-dippy friends.<br /><br />I loved it there. We spent our days playing in large tubs of soapy water, learning to tie our shoes, and singing "I'm Being Followed By a Moonshadow."<br /><br />From the three years I spent there, I can remember quite a few full days. I can even remember some of the daily routines. For instance, at lunch several kids would be chosen to shuttle food to and from the kitchen. We would wait patiently at the kitchen door for more vegan soba noodles or large pitchers of milk (both soy and dairy), which were normally handed to us by a perpetually old-looking woman named Bee.<br /><br />At reading time, we read great books by authors like Maurice Sendak (<a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0064434362.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">In the Night Kitchen</a> and <a href="http://threekidcircus.com/threekidcircus/archives/Wild%20Things.jpg">Where the Wild Things Are</a>), Shell Silverstien (<a href="http://www.saveourtreehouse.com/SaveOurTreehouse/books/shel_silverstein/where_the_sidewalk_ends.jpg">Where the Sidewalk Ends</a>), and, my favorite, <a href="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0671666061.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg">Strega Nona</a> by Tomie dePaola.<br /><br />My first girlfriend was a student at Boulder Day. Her name was Sonja, and she had a huge, curly head of hair and olive skin. She convinced me to touch tongues with her one day, and the feeling scared me horribly.<br /><br />I also remember the various injuries and emergencies that happened while I was there. I fractured my collarbone when I tripped over the exposed root of a tall tree on the playground. While visiting Pearl Street Mall as a group outing, I slipped on a slick rock and bit right through my tongue. I was also nearby when several of my friends got caught eating berries from a bush, which may or may not have been poisonous. I pled innocence, but, "just to be safe," they made us swallow syrup of ipecac, which makes kids and adults alike explode with projectile vomiting. Between heaves, I pointed down into my bucket of throwup, saying "See? SEE? <span style="font-style: italic;">I didn't </span><span style="font-style: italic;">eat </span><span style="font-style: italic;">any</span>!"<br /><br />I can remember the day we learned how to wash our hands. I can remember making pinhole cameras out of Quaker Oats cylinders. I can remember a scavenger hunt wherein the prize was a plastic piggy bank from the credit union down the block. And I can remember the day after my fifth birthday, when I brought my new fireman's helmet to school and wore it the entire day.<br /><br />I was friends with most of the kids there, but on weekends my mom would hang out with some of the other parents, and I would have playdates with their kids. One of my favorite friends was named Keggie (kedge-ee), a girl who was as cute as a button. She had a little round face framed by straight straw-colored hair, huge blue eyes, a golden laugh, and she always seemed to be wearing overalls.<br /><br />I've been told that remembering this kind of detail from childhood is rare.<br /><br />Years later, when I was maybe 19, I was waiting in line for a keg beer at a Hawaiian luau in Boulder, and the same girl, Keggie, walked up to the other side of the keg, cutting in line in front of a half-dozen guys at the party. I hadn't seen her since my last day of pre-school, but I recognized her instantly.<br /><br />No one said a word to her about cutting in line; Keggie had grown into a full-fledged knockout, and she knew it. There was only one guy in front of me, so I said something to her. "Hey, I think I went to pre-school with you!"<br /><br />She looked at me and pulled her head back, crinkling one eyebrow and raising the other. She said, "Oh?"<br /><br />"Yeah!" I said, "Where'd you go to pre-school?"<br /><br />With the same look on her face, she said, "Listen, I'm here with my boyfriend..."<br /><br />I started reeling off details about Boulder Day. Keggie's mother was a potter, and she had a kiln and some half-finished pots in the back yard. We once spent an afternoon smashing pottery scraps. I could even remember exactly what her room looked like: "You had the alphabet as wallpaper in your room. "A" was for apple, "B" was for boat, and "R" was for robot."<br /><br />She stood there, speechless, her beer now running over from the flowing tap.<br /><br />I looked her right in the eye and said, "Yeah. I wasn't hitting on you. Don't flatter yourself." Then I took the tap from her hand and started filling the cup belonging to the guy in front of me.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-79888765390222644282009-02-15T09:43:00.000-08:002009-02-22T10:09:27.083-08:00I Saw the Best Minds...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU3PUiz3e5hUTgriuDc6jNwxZ4T08pa5FgtBYga9hEGaRK7oI2F8_9R5juG47jysv7XLG2OGw38hpv8CA5HC4sikP4MeP2BupKjiKetfrKq4eFjqAz2szERVVXrYY_nTwV7T9_DKizNbA/s1600-h/OB-DD306_transg_F_20090213224212.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU3PUiz3e5hUTgriuDc6jNwxZ4T08pa5FgtBYga9hEGaRK7oI2F8_9R5juG47jysv7XLG2OGw38hpv8CA5HC4sikP4MeP2BupKjiKetfrKq4eFjqAz2szERVVXrYY_nTwV7T9_DKizNbA/s400/OB-DD306_transg_F_20090213224212.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305679619224021762" /></a>Last week, I saw this headline on the Wall Street Journal that was to be delivered later that day to one of our executives: "<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123456728548886075.html">In Praise of Transgressions.</a>" The above picture appeared there, showing Tom Daschle, Jessica Simpson, and Michael Phelps, with an additional fourth and fifth images of Britney Spears and Joaquin Phoenix.<div><br /></div><div>The author, Joe Queenan, says the following about these recent headliners' transgressions:</div><div><br /></div><div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">First, let me address the issue of the message being sent to the kids. The kids in question are presumably the ones who spend vast portions of their youth massacring people on video screens, or devouring films about vicious high school girls who actively plot one another's annihilation, or dressing up like the flamboyant sociopaths they watch on MTV. These are the real kids, the ones that actually inhabit this great nation, not the mythical kids of yore who go through life completely unaware that adults are imperfect creatures until Charles Barkley gets pulled over for driving under the influence or Britney Spears loses custody of her kids or Miley Cyrus poses for some steamy shots in Vanity Fair. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">These mythical kids are the ones who do their chores and gleefully read "Ethan Frome" and never talk back to their parents and somehow manage to grow up in 21st-century America without ever hearing about Michael Jackson and alcohol and crime. They were last seen on a rerun of "Little House on the Prairie" in 1981."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div>I would like to think that kids these days would find these characterizations <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">really</span> offensive. Each generation seems to give little or no credit to the ones that follow it. I'm sometimes guilty of the same. But, if nothing else, it's an unimaginative way to describe America's youth, and mostly a sad announcement that the author simply can't identify with them.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-13463927251579593052008-12-22T09:26:00.000-08:002009-02-22T10:12:01.544-08:00Hard Times, a Helping Hand<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtA5S7YxGYloE93PrNKdYVNQ7p6ANBXO3DI3fpsnSblToeWpw2TtFfajH6OSNWDaaCYMHQpK6_u8mPZn_99upjI255uPkML06ZB5bV6gzKSrjTRwoHXPCDi25l3YitZXs0iZtWUfAWgzk/s1600-h/22collagexlarge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 354px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtA5S7YxGYloE93PrNKdYVNQ7p6ANBXO3DI3fpsnSblToeWpw2TtFfajH6OSNWDaaCYMHQpK6_u8mPZn_99upjI255uPkML06ZB5bV6gzKSrjTRwoHXPCDi25l3YitZXs0iZtWUfAWgzk/s400/22collagexlarge.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305675437498597522" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">by Ted Gup, Canton Ohio</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">"Down through the decades, the identity of the benefactor remained a mystery. Three prosperous generations later, the whole affair was consigned to a footnote in Canton’s history. But to me, the story had always served as an example of how selfless Americans reach out to one another in hard times. I can’t even remember the first time I heard about Mr. B. Virdot, but I knew the tale well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then, this past summer, my mother handed me a battered old black suitcase that had been gathering dust in her attic. I flipped open the twin latches and found a mass of letters, all dated December 1933. There were also 150 canceled checks signed by “B. Virdot,” and a tiny black bank book with $760 in deposits."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/opinion/22gup.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all">Continue Reading...</a></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-88167256541619179052008-09-24T20:20:00.000-07:002008-09-24T21:13:26.440-07:00The Big Correction<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEXkFJyaH-tOwgBp6LPL_MRRqLU5bY3E0ZEK-5cDjp4ign7Pvyw7rStqrHbRAJTNkIu9bQ_mXCBj-GtpjEVQSuI7gALVXz0x0-F31QrXsSeKXpfYQFh2tPDv9bHVkxIMCAkjbYgZ39Do/s1600-h/earth.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEXkFJyaH-tOwgBp6LPL_MRRqLU5bY3E0ZEK-5cDjp4ign7Pvyw7rStqrHbRAJTNkIu9bQ_mXCBj-GtpjEVQSuI7gALVXz0x0-F31QrXsSeKXpfYQFh2tPDv9bHVkxIMCAkjbYgZ39Do/s400/earth.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5249804611492157026" border="0" /></a>Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, said last week, "we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”<br /><br />It's as if I have been asking myself how I would hold up if something like this were to happen, and now I might actually find out. I feel untested. Unproven. Really scared.<br /><br />I have no idea what's ahead. So far, I feel no one does. When I hear people discuss the brink, it seems like they, too, have nothing to go on except for their suspicions, their faith, and their hope.<br /><br />There is much guilt being expressed in the recounting: We have been living too lushly for too long. We have been greedy. We take too much for granted.<br /><br />The troubled economy as the manifestation of our financial and moral frivolity.<br /><br />Embedded in the penance is also a hearkening back to a vaguely earlier time or a vision of one in the not too distant future. The time before this modern one, when things and people were good. Or maybe a later time.<br /><br />In Esquire this month, there are several articles about the 21st Century. Some are grim; some are unrecognizable, as you might imagine the future to be; some are level-headed and optimistic. But one article, by <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/24/080324fa_fact_macfarquhar">a chef named David Chang</a>, was the perfect illustration of this concept for me:<br /><br />"You've seen the articles, right there on the front page next to equally uplifting stories about oil, the economy, and the war: The cost of food--of producing and procuring it--is soaring. In the restaurant world, it's all anyone can talk about. And the thing is, this is no temporary spike; it's actually a massive correction."<br /><br />And that word that has been overused so much lately is so powerful: correction.<br /><br />Maybe it's nostalgia, for a time and place that has yet to be created. Like they are saying, "I don't know what's ahead. Maybe the end. But I suspect it will be a lot like everything we always wanted."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-20958360377478246672008-08-15T17:13:00.000-07:002008-09-01T17:17:09.282-07:00Chuck Klosterman: Why We Still Watch Baseball<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiITWKHoH7rzuzSL0TgGKpesh7352RtfJUuk6tODKwmyAouNXWD5Fvd8mXgLK_KTA4wA182zLqur8eRpK5sIcuMVZnn9Rh_XQfMJBp8cjonwPZVGpAgIhmdNlF6l8cT6XXUg4Zixi1azQ/s1600-h/baseball.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiITWKHoH7rzuzSL0TgGKpesh7352RtfJUuk6tODKwmyAouNXWD5Fvd8mXgLK_KTA4wA182zLqur8eRpK5sIcuMVZnn9Rh_XQfMJBp8cjonwPZVGpAgIhmdNlF6l8cT6XXUg4Zixi1azQ/s400/baseball.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241211008565534354" border="0" /></a>In the September 2008 issue of <a href="http://www.esquire.com/">Esquire</a>:<br /><br />"Baseball is a turgid game that no longer reflects society. It fails to attract the best U.S. athletes and doesn't translate to television. It should be a dead sport. But it's not. Baseball still feels interesting, and it still captures the casual fan's attention every autumn. So what is the secret to its undying success? What is its quiet advantage? Some would argue it's tradition. I would argue it's the scoring system.<br /><br />Forced to watch soccer all summer, I figured out why baseball games still feel compelling, even when nothing seems to be happening. Baseball has--by far--the best scoring system in all of sport. It makes uninteresting contests exciting, because it a)doesn't have a concept of time and b)distributes runs in unorthodox increments.<br /><br />Here is what happens in (seemingly) every soccer game on the planet: Two teams are battling at 0-0. It's compelling. But then the slightly stronger team scores one goal and the lesser squad immediately starts pressing; they replace a defender with an attacker, and the superior team scores again. Now it's 2-0 and the game is over. The lead seems insurmountable. Football has a similar problem--because it requires a change of possession after every offensive touchdown, a team trailing late in the game is forced to take unusual risks to make up the deficit(even if that deficit is tiny). Football teams have to radically change their style of play when the game matters most. Basketball has so much scoring, and in such small increments, that hoops can feel meaningless. Intentional fouls become the lone option for desperate underdogs. But baseball has it right. Imagine a 3-0 game in the bottom of the ninth inning. The leading team is clearly in control. But if the leadoff hitter gets a bloop single, the pressure immediately reverts to the pitcher--now, if the next guy gets on base, the game has the potential to be reinvented with one swing. The fact that you can instantly score a variable number of runs (in a game in which scoring is rare) keeps baseball fascinating. That's why we care about the drama even when it isn't there."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-81853630810665665882008-07-03T03:21:00.000-07:002008-08-16T03:23:31.463-07:00The Itch: The Science Behind Itching<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqA7j9p1zpyjftkd-hmvY8QMfnG4_mh0Tab8jbzQCyzv4tSui7Nsv1IdxtcZSENWiRX1YCuBYUSNCgXUX3d8orHYsOokITRA4aZLjzU6xdNp40KDA_k32K49WTrvpnWSYZbvIWmuhGVI/s1600-h/080630_r17515_p233.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqA7j9p1zpyjftkd-hmvY8QMfnG4_mh0Tab8jbzQCyzv4tSui7Nsv1IdxtcZSENWiRX1YCuBYUSNCgXUX3d8orHYsOokITRA4aZLjzU6xdNp40KDA_k32K49WTrvpnWSYZbvIWmuhGVI/s400/080630_r17515_p233.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235058995836382386" border="0" /></a><br />"One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery <i>now</i>, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?printable=true">Continue Reading...</a><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-51646738824245443252008-05-10T11:14:00.000-07:002008-08-25T11:29:01.597-07:00Lists: Esquire's "75 Skills"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjAYx_4hdU0z0RjmxurLWP_BCmd5Xo8-jqazp5luS8-6awbw6QIf3dsN9BKpsA4uYhO55pyksuqUunCql1twNbOjA8XjLTPWQDGUIhEZO3IBsenkx_32OmP7MURJvD_OM_BuGLJfiUPsc/s1600-h/EsqJune2008Cover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjAYx_4hdU0z0RjmxurLWP_BCmd5Xo8-jqazp5luS8-6awbw6QIf3dsN9BKpsA4uYhO55pyksuqUunCql1twNbOjA8XjLTPWQDGUIhEZO3IBsenkx_32OmP7MURJvD_OM_BuGLJfiUPsc/s200/EsqJune2008Cover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238521966584590594" border="0" /></a>Esquire magazine published a list of 75 things a man should know how to do. Given number 64 (shown below), these might be things that a man should just know. But all the same, I review the list regularly. It was so good, I decided to subscribe to the magazine:<br /><b><br />1. Give advice that matters in one sentence. </b> I got run out of a job I liked once, and while it was happening, a guy stopped me in the hall. Smart guy, but prone to saying too much. I braced myself. I didn't want to hear it. I needed a white knight, and I knew it wasn't him. He just sighed and said: <i>When nobody has your back, you gotta move your back.</i> Then he walked away. Best advice I ever got. One sentence.<br /><b><br />23. Be loyal. </b> You will fail at it. You have already. A man who does not know loyalty, from both ends, does not know men. Loyalty is not a matter of give-and-take: <i>He did me a favor, therefore I owe him one. </i>No. No. No. It is the recognition of a bond, the honoring of a shared history, the reemergence of the vows we make in the tight times. It doesn't mean complete agreement or invisible blood ties. It is a currency of selflessness, given without expectation and capable of the most stellar return.<br /><b><br />64. Know that Christopher Columbus was a son of a bitch. </b> When I was a kid, because I'm Italian and because the Irish guys in my neighborhood were relentless with the beatings on St. Patrick's Day, I loved the very idea of Christopher Columbus. I loved the fact that Irish kids worshipped some gnome who drove all the rats out of Ireland or whatever, whereas my hero was an explorer. Man, I drank the Kool-Aid on that guy. Of course, I later learned that he was a hand-chopping, land-stealing egotist who sold out an entire hemisphere to European avarice. So I left Columbus behind. Your understanding of your heroes must evolve. See Roger Clemens. See Bill Belichick.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/essential-skills-0508">The full Esquire list</a><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://hunterslaton.blogspot.com/2006/10/hr-slatons-finishing-school-for-dudes.html">My friend, Hunter's list (still good, but funnier)</a><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-37260787690006188662008-04-01T12:24:00.000-07:002008-09-07T12:33:06.494-07:00Trapped in an Elevator for 41 Hours<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p_bMhNI_TY8&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p_bMhNI_TY8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div>"At a certain point, Nicholas White ran out of ideas. Anger and vindictiveness took root. He began to think, They, whoever they were, shouldn’t be able to get away with this, that he deserved some compensation for the ordeal. He cast about for blame. He wondered where his colleague was, why she hadn’t been alarmed enough by his failure to return, jacketless, from smoking a cigarette to call security. Whose fault is this? he wondered. Who’s going to pay? He decided that there was no way he was going to work the following week.<div><br />And then he gave up. The time passed in a kind of degraded fever dream. On the videotape, he lies motionless for hours at a time, face down on the floor.</div><div><br />A voice woke him up: “Is there someone in there?”</div><div><br />“Yes.”</div><div><br />“What are you doing in there?”</div><div><br />White tried to explain; the voice in the intercom seemed to assume that he was an intruder."</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all">Continue Reading...</a></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-40260060437528429212008-03-24T06:16:00.000-07:002008-08-28T06:26:39.439-07:00The Fruit Detective<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvXNlpqNC-SFq0BwaXids82CP_Ag6lPP3nM54Nydb-glC_Db-LikYv-YVrUlqpIT5vqyqRhTj90YS2pqY83Km98C-lA0PbAD_k5JfphI6GZf7gGilCNvxwmw5NwwPrGPZELeCRr2K3Vg/s1600-h/lichi3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvXNlpqNC-SFq0BwaXids82CP_Ag6lPP3nM54Nydb-glC_Db-LikYv-YVrUlqpIT5vqyqRhTj90YS2pqY83Km98C-lA0PbAD_k5JfphI6GZf7gGilCNvxwmw5NwwPrGPZELeCRr2K3Vg/s400/lichi3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239558231108088930" border="0" /></a>"In the truck, we talked of fruit constantly. Karp is especially passionate about stone fruit--apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries--and, because it was cherry and apricot season, we spent a lot of time on those fruits. We discussed the genealogy of different varieties, and the way the great varieties were described in the works of fruit literature that Karp most admires--chiefly, Robert Hogg's "The Fruit Manual: A Guide to the Fruits and Fruit Trees of Great Britain" (fifth edition, 1884) and Edward A. Bunyard's "The Anatomy of Dessert" (1929). Karp quoted, from memory, passages about the "melting" quality Bunyard prized; after a while, it was hard to tell when he was quoting and when he wasn't. "At its ripest, it is drunk rather than eaten," he'd say, referring to Coe's Golden Drop plum. Discussing the transparent gage, he pronounced, "A slight flush of red and then one looks into the depths of transparent amber as one looks into an opal, uncertain how far the eye can penetrate." If I got something wrong or forgot a point about fruit made in an earlier conversation, Karp was quick to correct me. By the end of five days of fruit talk in the fruitmobile, I was counting the minutes to the time I could say goodbye and not have to talk about fruit anymore.<br /><br />I also watched Karp eat a lot of fruit. I saw him grazing in a cherry orchard with the farmer, who, after sampling cherries for half an hour, had to run for the bathroom. Craig Ledbetter, an apricot breeder with the Department of Agriculture, whom we met near Fresno, said, "David eats fruit that I wouldn't touch, and I eat a lot of fruit. Soft, half-rotten stuff on the ground--he has no problem putting that into his mouth."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-72958484806875070552008-03-17T21:11:00.000-07:002008-03-31T21:33:45.151-07:00Wired Magazine - Jon Stewart<object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aFQFB5YpDZE&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aFQFB5YpDZE&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wired:</span> Let me ask you about the Crossfire thing - not about your critique of that show, but about the reaction to it.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Stewart:</span> Ben was there, by the way. I remember looking out into the audience and seeing his face and realizing, "I guess this isn't going well."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Karlin:</span> Well, we had hand signals, and before the show I made the mistake of saying that this [drawing his finger across his throat] meant "Keep on going, great, do the exact same thing." So I was frantically doing this [draws finger across throat fast].<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wired: </span>What was the symbol for stop supposed to be?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Karlin:</span> [Gives thumbs-up.]<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Stewart:</span> It was a stupid way to do it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wired: </span>But the show was a total sensation: Something like 3 million people saw that - but mostly online. Less than a quarter of them saw it on CNN proper. It was huge, phenomenal viral video.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Stewart:</span> It was definitely viral. I felt nauseous afterward.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/stewart.html">Continue Reading...</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Also, from Jon Stewart's C-Span appearance in 2004:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ken Auletta of The New Yorker Magazine: </span>People say Bush is the kind of guy they’d like to have a beer with. You don’t feel that way?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Stewart: </span>You know, I don’t like to drink with people who are... alcoholics. I always find that to be tacky.<br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-20819477747934699172008-03-10T20:40:00.000-07:002008-03-10T20:52:53.101-07:00Bicycle by Paul Fattaruso<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsXfNxWlHXyIlOfn5A-FIKRBq7JVglA_jAkLr6ZO8GpnJU6XRyULYBfQvs49ecrnKp7A4dvvPNSUyX3VETrGQ7FN5WbJULTnnkWj75-IG8tULdMRVjoYsVRt_fdE5nptvA_CWDU7U-Js/s1600-h/fattaruso.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsXfNxWlHXyIlOfn5A-FIKRBq7JVglA_jAkLr6ZO8GpnJU6XRyULYBfQvs49ecrnKp7A4dvvPNSUyX3VETrGQ7FN5WbJULTnnkWj75-IG8tULdMRVjoYsVRt_fdE5nptvA_CWDU7U-Js/s400/fattaruso.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176326947497679906" border="0" /></a>A year ago, I rode my bicycle wherever I went: to and from work, trips to the store, weekend rides up into the mountains. If I went to the bar, I would ride swiftly there and wobbly back. While riding, I would constantly chant something I saw once in the window of a nearby bicycle shop: "When I see an adult riding a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." This wasn't something political or about any Repeating this to myself was enough to propel me up mountainous roads and through snowstorms.<br /><br />In the past year, however, I moved to an apartment that is farther away and uphill from where I work, so my daily rides turned quickly to weekly rides. Then I bought a scooter. And my rides, weekly or brief, are no more.<br /><br />A few weeks ago, Joli and I rode to the store on our bikes, and we bought a new pasta pot and rode home again. It was sunny and glorious. I missed it.<br /><br />Today, I went to the bookstore, and I found a small book entitled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Hotel-George-Paul-Fattaruso/dp/097891032X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205207468&sr=8-1">"Bicycle," written by Paul Fattaruso</a>. It's beautiful and strange, and it has enough power to propel people up mountains:<br /><br />"If the bicycle squeaks, that means something is trying to kill it, however patiently."<br /><br />"With a little doctoring, a bicycle can indeed be made to gallop."<br /><br />"We traveled like this for two quiet weeks: only the sound of wind purring in the spokes of our wheels."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-80936661783926033942008-03-09T08:45:00.000-07:002008-03-09T08:53:43.787-07:00Choosing Your Words Carefully<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPWbp_Y76WpI5sYNhUcxBMUY_UQDCA80VIV5efZwPATEfrwe_8tKOhxebKyZrG33238P_csFTn0GoRnjT2JRKPabPm82U1a6l6anMCGYSYEF2cAhje1tjtS2dvdSlCrU_37Gi4es9pNEk/s1600-h/TALlogo.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPWbp_Y76WpI5sYNhUcxBMUY_UQDCA80VIV5efZwPATEfrwe_8tKOhxebKyZrG33238P_csFTn0GoRnjT2JRKPabPm82U1a6l6anMCGYSYEF2cAhje1tjtS2dvdSlCrU_37Gi4es9pNEk/s400/TALlogo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175770620383829010" border="0" /></a>About a month ago, one of the producers at This American Life sent out prompts for story ideas, such as "Mistakes Were Made," "See Things My Way," and "Do Over." One of the explanations for the topics said the following: "Basically, we have this theory about what's happening in New Orleans now and we'd like to know if it holds water."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-4087658256444838852008-03-05T19:44:00.000-08:002008-03-05T19:54:06.797-08:00David Brooks: A Defining Moment<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UMzKE4K1w3A-8tB4bxrIHXPxzhsqufZq8XeYsMBYVC7wKth3WleBnM4l52nxxkKMOwcvYIx1zagN5eNGA4L_k5pHzHzkWcS0uuG74TV1Hvj6Kv4KYYrklgcc9erIpodGORNYzzpqz3A/s1600-h/06.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UMzKE4K1w3A-8tB4bxrIHXPxzhsqufZq8XeYsMBYVC7wKth3WleBnM4l52nxxkKMOwcvYIx1zagN5eNGA4L_k5pHzHzkWcS0uuG74TV1Hvj6Kv4KYYrklgcc9erIpodGORNYzzpqz3A/s400/06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174471943981657762" border="0" /></a>"Clinton rode the passion of the crowd and delivered an energetic battle cry. And in many elections that sort of speech, delivered around the country, would clinch the nomination. <p> But this is a country in the midst of a crisis of authority, a country that has become disillusioned not only with one president, but with a whole system of politics. It’s a country that has lost faith not only with one institution, but with the entire set of leadership institutions. The cultural context, in other words, allowed for a much broader critique, a much more audacious vocabulary.</p><p> And Barack Obama leapt right in."</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/opinion/04brooks.html?em&ex=1204866000&en=ad596574ab306b4e&ei=5070">Continue Reading...</a><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-67572802048563110122008-02-10T05:44:00.000-08:002008-03-04T05:53:17.862-08:00Face Blindness: Prosopagnosia<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj04YCuTUv3uQfVeRnUbPP4uD7FkrXX8Q4gUBx7YLt15by_LY6Y3HqWJdGcf_VH92XBK-K3jAnRo_FZ-QrnYx8RjV7bBbh3odrtHqV9q1C0PamRdE_cr6BnFUAo_F6SpWwDmtfwTigobz0/s1600-h/wiri5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj04YCuTUv3uQfVeRnUbPP4uD7FkrXX8Q4gUBx7YLt15by_LY6Y3HqWJdGcf_VH92XBK-K3jAnRo_FZ-QrnYx8RjV7bBbh3odrtHqV9q1C0PamRdE_cr6BnFUAo_F6SpWwDmtfwTigobz0/s400/wiri5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173882003391305442" border="0" /></a><strong>"TOM UGLOW, A GRAPHIC DESIGNER</strong> in London, didn't have a problem perceiving that it was a girl watching him across the bar. Her blond hair had a nice sheen. She seemed pretty. Uglow ordered another beer, downed it, and walked her way. He was about to introduce himself when she cut him off. <p>"Hi, Tom," she said, no longer smiling. "Why were you making eyes at me?"</p> <p>"Damn," he thought. "This isn't going as planned."</p> <p>Her voice sounded familiar. He searched her face but couldn't place her. This happened more than he liked to admit.</p> <p>"How've you been?" he asked, casually trying to fish for a clue as to who she was.</p> <p>"Better now that we're broken up."</p> <p>Ah! It was his ex-girlfriend. Once he'd had a moment to process her voice, he was able to place her. They had dated for a year. Definitely not a good person to be hitting on. It was a problem: Every time he saw a face, it felt like it was for the first time.</p> <p>Uglow tried to work around it. Everyone looked equally unfamiliar, but rather than treat unfamiliar faces as strangers, he acted like everyone was his best pal. "Generally, I'll be very smiley, friendly, and nice, even though I have no idea who I'm talking to," he says. "But at least that person would come away liking me." He'd rather live in a world populated with friends than with strangers.</p> <p>It never occurred to Uglow that his inability to see the world as others did would stand in the way of becoming an artist. Ever since he was a kid, he had loved drawing and made endless sketches of friends and family in his journals. They almost never had faces. For Tom, that wasn't a big deal. He felt he could convey personality with his brushstrokes or a particularly adept representation of someone's posture.</p> <p>Every year, he made a pilgrimage to London's National Portrait Gallery. The museum hosts an annual contest to select the best emerging portrait artists, and Uglow likes to keep up with the latest techniques. This year, the winning portrait was a photorealistic depiction of an elderly woman, her face wrinkled and blotchy. Uglow loved it, though not because of the three-quarters-crazy look in the woman's eyes or her haunted expression. He loved it because the technique was so precise, so exact. To him, it spoke of the struggle against chaos, decay, and death. It was an attempt to impose order on what couldn't be controlled. In his own way, he had grasped the essence of the painting.</p> <p>By day, Uglow makes a living designing logos, but someday he'd like to see his portraits hang in the gallery. The fact that they don't have faces doesn't seem to be an impediment. "Faces aren't that important in the contemporary art world," he observes. And yet, despite the missing faces – or maybe because of them – his paintings and sketches are evocative. In one sketch, a young girl holds an umbrella in a field. The umbrella has a densely patterned green and purple canopy, and individual blades of grass are visible. The girl's scarf is sharply defined, but she has no face. In another drawing, newlyweds stand beside a wedding cake; the bride has no head, but the fringe of her dress is elaborately delineated. It's a view into another reality."</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/blind.html">Continue Reading...</a><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-1655563811034255892008-02-03T12:49:00.001-08:002008-02-03T12:50:29.566-08:00Yes, We Can<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jjXyqcx-mYY&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jjXyqcx-mYY&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630536023187609119.post-17091023688273649242008-02-02T16:17:00.000-08:002008-02-02T16:25:10.372-08:00Fresh Air Fiend: The View from Fifty<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTDZJPGwq-PJpltBHjmTZcXo8UD0tO1-rsI8xRNtc-K35ZmPlR4fMy8ODxnTMtaQUhAp66Gn1_NOHCaqb2gORL_tnKJqd1itp3ksUABvTFQ376jnTHB3bM_nGHTyusfe82cxaX0Tmn4Nk/s1600-h/theroux.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTDZJPGwq-PJpltBHjmTZcXo8UD0tO1-rsI8xRNtc-K35ZmPlR4fMy8ODxnTMtaQUhAp66Gn1_NOHCaqb2gORL_tnKJqd1itp3ksUABvTFQ376jnTHB3bM_nGHTyusfe82cxaX0Tmn4Nk/s400/theroux.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162542920177128210" border="0" /></a>"I separated from my wife in London and quickly realized that I could not live in the city anymore. That very day I flew to the United States; I needed the comfort of my childhood home. I needed reassurance, the stimuli of those landscapes and sounds - the weather, the temperature, the odors. It was winter: frost, rattling branches, wood planks shrieking in the house, night skies, dead leaves.<br /><br />I also needed the artifacts in that house, objects such as pictures and knickknacks. My chair. My desk. My books. With these, I felt, I could begin again. Once, about six years before, our London house was burglarized. People have various responses to news of a robbery. You feel violated, they say. The thieves must be desperate, they say. Criminals come from awful homes; they're on drugs; they need your stuff; you're lucky you weren't home; you might have been killed.<br /><br />Mine was none of these. I felt, They stole my memories - they removed a portion of my mind! The insurance people asked how much my things were worth. I told them truthfully: they were priceless. I would never look upon those objects again and remember. For this reason, for a period of time I ranted like a fanatic. I am not talking about a video recorder or a radio. I am speaking of a small silver box that had the camphor-wood odor of Singapore, of the pen with the worn-down nib with which I wrote seven or eight books, of the amber necklace I bought with my last twenty dollars in Turkey. All of it gone, flogged to a fence somewhere in London. Sentimental value, people said. Yes, but to me there is no other value. If all we were talking about was money, then these things could have been replaced and I would have had no problem. What was removed from me by these thieves were the stimuli for some of my dearest memories."<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/t/theroux-fiend.html">Continue Reading...</a><br /></div>SunDustNethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16952807802992382740noreply@blogger.com0